ESL Teaching with I-Pad and I-Phone

ESL Teaching with I-Pad and I-Phone

ESL Teaching with I-Pad and I-Phone

Has it really been over 30 years since the Speak & Spell was first introduced? In its own way, I guess it was the first portable ESL learning tool (even if that wasn't its original purpose!). The Speak and Spell came to the world courtesy of Texas Instruments who created a speech synthesizer with a keyboard and a speaker. Its purpose was to generate spoken words, which then had to be spelled correctly on the keyboard. Quite an ingenious device for the late 1970's: a handheld electronic tool specifically for the learning of English.

So have we come much further along the path of portable electronic devices to help students learn English and teachers to teach English? Well of course we have! Let's compare some of the features of the ipad with the functionality of the Speak & Spell. Its an unfair comparison I know, but the purpose is to demonstrate just what can be achieved in the esl classroom with modern technology.

Firstly, rather than being reliant on a small memory card for vocabulary lists, the ipad by means of its wi-fi settings can harness the might of the world wide web, and that's a fairly big resource! More importantly, with software such as kindle, whole books can be downloaded and read on the screen, again, a boon for the language learner (I will look at the functionality of different programs and applications in later articles). So you can see already that in terms of accessible resources, the ipad, and even the iphone for that matter, are worlds apart from their early incarnations. Apps, or applications specifically designed to be used on the ipad or indeed any smartphone or tablet and growing at an amazing rate and more and more educational apps are coming online all the time.

Another benefit the ipad has in the esl classroom is the built in camera and video camera. These can be used in a multitude of ways. Photo stories and storyboards can be created, pictures can be used as stimulus for descriptive essays and students can even be filmed doing presentations or roleplays and watch and get feedback instantaneously! A couple of esl teachers over on the interactive esl forum www.esltweets.com are already experimenting with a variety of smartphone and tablet apps, so if you want to get involved or find out more, drop by and say hello. Its a far cry from the technology of the late 70's!

The beauty of all of this available technology is that it can be carried in a small bag. It can be taken to the class, taken home etc. Teachers can send documents and work exercises to students from the classroom or from home, and students can return assignments as and when they are finished at the click of a button. The functionality is endless, but the real question is: how much of this technology is actually being utilized in the esl classroom? There is still a long way to go, but the future of esl teaching looks exciting!

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